My Fitbit Problem--
For my birthday some months ago, my daughter gave me
a) a massage gift certificate which her father paid for.
b) a lavish bouquet of flowers
c) a lavish trip to Hong Kong!
d) a fitbit. Duh. Look at the title of the blog.
Answer: A and D. I actually have two daughters. As for the flowers and the trip to Hong Kong...I wish.
For those who don't know, a fitbit is a small device that tracks your steps every day. It's like a pedometer, but high tech with a website link, food logs, motivational links, and way more. The wristband ones can track your stairs every day. I've got the little one that attaches to my bra and gets my forward and backwards steps pretty accurately. The side to side lateral steps are harder for it, but it catches some of them.
* * *
My reaction to the gift of electronic monitoring:
a) PANIC! OMG, the government is going to keep track of me!
b) Yawn. Why do I need to know how many steps I take in a day?
c) HUH? What the hell is this little thing and WHERE do I attach it?
d) AWESOME! Now I can track my fitness obsessively! (and completely ignore the food log aspects)
Answer: D. I knew that according to doctors, a healthy person walks approximately 10,000 steps a day. Now obviously there are plenty of healthy people who don't do a fraction of that, and probably some very unhealthy people who do way more than 10k. Whatever. I just thought it was cool and wanted to start establishing goals and tracking what I did and generally feeling proud of myself because I walked two miles in a day.
It worked great for a couple months. Loved the thing, had fun with it, and gabbed with my friends about it. And then the problem happened. Audio
a) I accidentally flushed it down the toilet
b) The government caught me on a day when I hadn't walked at all and fined me a zillion dollars for being a couch potato.
c) I suddenly lost a hundred pounds and am now a supermodel
d) I joined an Entangled Authors/Staff Fitbit Group and suddenly got competitive.
e) Not only did I suddenly get competitive but in an effort to reach top slot on the leaderboard, I hurt my ankle, then ignored it. Started on shinsplints, which I ignored. And then pulled a hamstring which I couldn't ignore. That's me over there on crutches.
Answer: D. E is completely true except for the crutches. I'm actually wearing an ACE ankle brace since the problem began with the swollen ankle. It's possible that a competitive nature PLUS blatant stupidity in ignoring the injuries is what has truly done me in. But in my defense, a competitive nature INCLUDES the need to ignore anything that will deter one from reaching the GOAL.
And now I've falling off the Leader Board ENTIRELY! WAAAAAAAHHHHHH!
The main question here is will I learn an important life lesson from this?
a) I've learned that I don't play well with others because I have to CRUSH THEM INTO THE GROUND
b) I've learned that one doesn't ignore a swelling in ANYTHING. Rest and ice early might have prevented this particular disaster.
c) I've learned that doing speed drills suck if you've pulled a hamstring. Wait, are you saying I shouldn't do them at all? But then how will I play racquetball with quick feet?
d) absolutely nothing.
Answer: D. Seriously. I've had a zillion athletic injuries throughout my life, all resulting from pushing too hard and ignoring the consequences. It's part of my charm.
Want to know who else has a directed, competitive nature? Who sets a goal and doesn't let anything deter her? That would be the heroine of TWO WEEK SEDUCTION by Kathy Lyons.
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